Children At The ICU

           When I was in the state of medical induced coma, my nightmares were terrible and vivid. In my nightmares, I was being constantly tortured by nurses and doctors. Some nightmares even repeated themselves, like a bad movie.

Pain, anxiety, frustration and all of the negative emotions could be felt in my nightmares. Feeling confused and frightened, there was a desperation in me as I didn’t know where I was and wanted to go home or at least inform my parents that I will not be home so soon.  There were also silhouettes of dark figures outside the room, looking in, as if waiting for something to happen.  

         After regaining consciousness around 2 and a half months from the date of my accident, I remembered hearing and seeing children playing outside of my room in the ICU. In the middle of the night, usually after 9.00pm to nearly midnight. There was a particular boy, whom I suspected to be the leader of the group, a Chinese boy wearing glasses, who looks to be around 7 to 8 years old.

Occasionally, this boy will be peering inside my room with his friends and say in a loud voice, “I don’t like it here, it is so quiet.” 

            What nerve! such a pesky boy, I thought to myself. I couldn’t understand why the doctors and the nurses would allow those kids to play and make noise outside of my room.

         When my sister visited me in the ICU, a few times I have complaint to her about those kids playing in the middle of the night. 

          My sister looked puzzled and said, “There are no children here.”

          I insisted there were, and that they are making so much noise in the middle of the night.

         Calmly, my sister replied, “Don’t be bothered by them.”

         Months later, when I was transferred to the Burn Ward, I still recalled those children playing and questioned my sister again.

         She then told me, “Sis, that ward is for adults only. The ICU for children is not located at the same place. It is elsewhere.”

         

         I insisted and told her that this can’t be true as there were children playing there.

        In a firm voice, my sister said, “Sis, from my observation at the ICU, most of the patients in there are immobile and critical. Nearly half of the patients entering ICU will not make it out alive!”

Suddenly a realisation hit upon me, I pondered upon this. Who were those children? Why were they there? I was still not feeling satisfied with the answer that I got.

One day, I decided to ask one of the friendlier nurses who was attending to me during dressing. I narrated to her the story about those children that I saw in the ICU.

The nurse had a surprising look on her face, she paused for a while and said, “The adult ICU used to be the ICU for children. Yes, children were there a long time ago”.

Finally, I had my answer. I wasn’t crazy or hallucinating. The nurse then continued, “Eileyn, if you see the children again, if they invite you to play with them, tell them NO.”

Giving her an incredulous look, I replied, “Of course not! Who wants to play with them?”    

I wasn’t really frightened, just puzzled with what I saw. I did know that I was given morphine during my medically induced coma, but that was before I was conscious of my surroundings.

Strange happenings didn’t only happen in the ICU, but also at the Burn Ward, from what I was told. One day, my sister insisted that she saw a particular nurse at the Burn Ward, but turns out that she was not on duty on that day. And she denied being around the hospital on that day too.  It seems this doopleganger appearance doesn’t happen only once but a few times, witnessed by others working there.

However, having shared the above story, I don’t think one should worry about ghostly appearances at the hospital. Whatever your religious background, just pray for protection and for the beings to finally find peace and stop lurking around at the hospital.